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Dancers in a Dubai hotel. Photograph: Rex Features The bosomy blonde in a tight, low-cut evening dress slid on to a barstool next to me and began the chat: Where are you from? How long are you here? Where are you staying? I asked her what she did for a living. "You know what I do," she replied. "I'm a whore." As I looked around the designer bar on the second floor of the glitzy five-star hotel, it was obvious that every woman in the place was a prostitute. And the men were all potential punters, or at least window-shoppers. Why Dubai's Islamic austerity is a sham – sex is for sale in every bar | World news | The Observer

Mohammed Al Fayed has sold London department store Harrods to the Qatari royal family's investment company for a reported £1.5bn ($2.3bn). The Egypt-born tycoon acquired the business in Knightsbridge following a £615m takeover in 1985. Ken Costa, an adviser to the deal with Qatar Holdings, said Mr Al Fayed was retiring "to spend more time with his children and grandchildren". He will continue to promote the store in the role of honorary chairman. But Mr Al Fayed will not be involved in running the company on a day-to-day basis QATAR HOLDING Investment arm of the emirate's sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) Parent company's estimated assets more than £40.5bn Sold around £1.4bn of shares in Barclays bank last October Failed in bid for Sainsbury's in 2007 Third-largest shareholder in car-maker VW and has stake in Porsche BBC News - Mohammed Al Fayed sells Harrods store to Qatar Holdings Harrods

Arab nations are leading a "historic" charge to make the world wide web live up to its name. Net regulator Icann has switched on a system that allows full web addresses that contain no Latin characters. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first countries to have so-called "country codes" written in Arabic scripts. The first country codes: Egypt: مصر Saudi Arabia: السعودية United Arab Emirates: امارات BBC News - 'Historic' day as first non-latin web addresses go live

Manama: Qatar's May 1 plan to scrap its visa-on-arrival facility for nationals of 33 countries, including the US and the UK, has been delayed. Qatar last month announced plans that it would change the rule and apply a visa reciprocity system that would affect the nationals of countries that did not offer Qataris visas upon their arrival. Under the planned system, nationals from countries that impose pre-arrival visas on Qataris will have to get their visas from Qatari embassies regardless of the purpose of their visit. The change was scheduled for May 1, but several countries whose nationals would be affected by the new rule, have requested more time from Qatar's foreign ministry before its implementation, Qatar News Agency (QNA) said. A foreign ministry official said that the requests were being studied. “It has, therefore, been decided that the existing visa-on-arrival scheme at the Doha International Airport for the citizens of the 33 countries will remain u

Cameroonian conjoined twins Pheinbom and Shevoboh were seen as a bad omen when born, but their successful separation by Saudi surgeons has changed their lives - and the faith of some in their village. They were joined at the chest, abdomen and pelvis when born and some of the delivery nurses in Babanki Tungo, a village in north-west Cameroon, were so shocked by the "strange birth" that they ran out of the small clinic. The basic medical services in Babanki Tungo were ill-equipped to care for the girls and, following an internet appeal, the Saudi king agreed to pay for them to be flown to Saudi Arabia for surgery in 2007. The 16-hour operation succeeded in separating the twins and now they each have their own stomach. read more  Avatar (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray]

The opening of the Armani Hotel in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa will be postponed by seven days, according to the building’s developer Emaar. The hotel was due to open on Wednesday with a gala fashion show attended by the Italian designer behind the project, Giorgio Armani. A spokesman told Gulf News, “Due to the unforeseen closure of European Aerospace and the subsequent cancellation of international flights, the much anticipated grand opening of Armani Hotel Dubai has been postponed from Wednesday 21st April to Tuesday 27th April 2010. Giorgio Armani had planned to fly into Dubai from Italy by Monday to attend the opening of the Armani Hotel and Residences, the first of a number of hotels planned by the Italian fashion group.

Dubai: People stranded at UAE airports due to the volcanic ash will be issued the 96 hours visa at the airport, in an effort to ease their travelling procedures. Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, has instructed concerned authorities to facilitate the visa process for people affected by the crisis. Affected people can approach the passport control officer upon their arrival at the airport and can be issued visa according to the 96 hours visa rules. Shaikh Saif’s humanitarian initiative comes in line with the UAE’s keenness to help affected people, ease their visa procedures and alleviate their ordeal.  read more People stranded in Dubai due to Iceland's volcanic eruption will not be penalised for overstaying their visas, said a senior official of the Ministry of the Interior. Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director General of the Dubai General Department for Residency and Foreigners Affairs,